- New rumor suggests laptops with Nvidia’s new CPUs could arrive in first half of 2026
- These are the long-rumored N1 and N1X processors, which are Arm-based
- There will also be notebooks from Dell and Lenovo as well as other suppliers
If you’re wondering when laptops will start shipping with Nvidia’s new Arm CPU inside, the latest rumor suggests that the first models will debut in the first half of this year.
A report from the Wall Street Journal (via VideoCardz ) claims that Dell and Lenovo are working on laptops with Arm CPUs from Nvidia – built in partnership with MediaTek – which “could arrive in the first half of this year”.
It suggests an arrival within the next four months or so, and this info comes from sources in Nvidia’s supply chain.
These are the long-rumored N1 and N1X CPUs, in case you were wondering. The report notes that the hope is that Nvidia’s silicon can help make notebooks both lighter and thinner, while maintaining long battery life.
Of course, it’s a very good fit for an Arm chip, where these processors excel at achieving new heights of battery life in thin and light laptops.
Dell and Lenovo are specifically mentioned, but the WSJ notes that other laptop makers will be on board with Nvidia’s Arm CPU, as you’d expect — though the first units may be from those vendors.
Analysis: strong arm tactics
While Arm has its strengths – as mentioned, certainly in energy efficiency – these laptops also have their weaknesses when running Windows 11. Namely compatibility issues around some software and especially games, although last year many meaningful steps were taken in smoothing out games on an Arm notebook.
An Nvidia-powered Windows on Arm laptop could then be quite exciting as a thin and light capable of handling mainstream games relatively well with its integrated graphics. Because of course the GPU will be one of Nvidia’s strong points here, with earlier rumors that the graphics core count could be up there with the RTX 5070. Although that doesn’t mean the actual performance will be – we have to be realistic about the scope of integrated graphics, given thermals and so on.
There’s also the issue of driver quality in Nvidia’s favor, which is a shakier area for the Adreno GPUs in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips (which will be Team Green’s rival in Windows on Arm notebooks).
As for the timing of the rumors, there are concerns about the RAM crisis, which is making everything difficult in the PC world and also extends to storage memory chips, and how it could disrupt Nvidia’s launch plans.
Earlier rumors suggested a Q1 2026 launch for these N1X laptops, but that never seemed that likely as Nvidia didn’t even mention the devices at CES 2026 (and if they were close at hand, Team Green surely would have).
I’m also not sure about a launch in the first half of 2026 at this point. The WSJ seems pretty tentative in its wording with the rumored time frame, so it sounds far from certain. From a betting perspective, I’d give Q3 the same odds as Q2 here, given the current PC climate, but we’ll see.
Besides, there are other notable issues here. What about the rumored desktop incarnation of Nvidia’s new Arm CPU? And indeed remember Nvidia’s separate collaboration, away from MediaTek, where the company provides integrated graphics for Intel CPUs (among other plans) – how does that fit with this Arm master plan? 2026 will certainly be a revealing year for Nvidia, but I’m not convinced that these revelations are anything like imminent yet.
The best computers for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
